Rinehart doco set for reality

CBD was pleased to see that the crowdfunded documentary being planned on Australia's richest woman Gina Rinehart - called I Dream of Gina (IDOG) - has reached its funding target of $25,000.

''Obviously, $25,000 won't fund the whole film, BUT it will help get the show on the road!!'' said its appeal on crowd-funding platform Pozible.

Two big spenders opted for the $2000 donation package, which means they get to become executive producers of the project. It is understood Mrs Rinehart is not one of these two donors, which is a pity.

''Your name will be featured in the film's opening title sequence! You'll be able to slap it on your IMDB page! AND ABOVE ALL you'll sleep soundly knowing that you helped in getting this film made,'' says a post from the IDOG team.

On target

Peter Holmes a Court (right) is also doing well with his charity efforts, which dovetailed with his weekend wedding in Botswana to photo-journalist Alissa Everett.

His Fundly-based raiser was threatening to crack the $18,000 barrier on the eve of the nuptials with a final target of $24,000 by the end of the month.

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Peter's mummy, former RBA director Janet Holmes a Court, chipped in with $1000, but CBD couldn't spot anything from his South Sydney Rabbitohs co-owner, Russell Crowe. James Packer also resisted the urge to donate despite rumours he's interested in Holmes a Court's stake in the NRL club.

Maybe the Rabbitoh's club member 27761 is keeping hold of his ticket for now.

Double gearing refers to the practice of getting a client to borrow against their home, and then using the money as a margin loan to gamble on the sharemarket.

Brilliant!

For those with a memory longer than a goldfish, this is what brought thousands of predominantly Queensland-based clients undone at Storm Financial during the financial crisis that was not computed into Storm's risk model.

Pity that FTS didn't have any sophisticated investors, and business partners, to keep it on the right track. Oh wait, which big four banks are associated with this esteemed outfit?

According to the FTS website NAB owned 25 per cent of FTS until March this year, via its wealth division MLC.

And the Commonwealth Bank's Colonial Geared Investments is listed as one of its ''banking platforms''.

CBA was obviously busy with other things at the time.

Taking a break

CBA's wealth management fiasco has offered a wonderful insight into how far the government's implicit guarantee of our big four banks stretches.

With a bombshell of a Senate report about to land, CBA chief Ian Narev goes on holiday to Indonesia and stays there while the government squishes calls for a royal commission.

He flies back to announce a half-baked review by the bank of its own misdemeanours.

At least he bothered to fly back. CBA chairman David Turner has also been missing in action during the latest flare-up and is holidaying somewhere in the UK we are told.

Missed the mark

Speaking of banks. One of the hardest jobs of journalism is deciding which big stories deserve the scant resources available to modern media operators.

CBD was pleased to see ANZ Group's news operation, BlueNotes, did not shirk the big story of last week.

It dutifully covered hard-hitting issues like electronic payments in Singapore, as well as China and Vietnam's maritime tensions, and avoided parochial issues such as Commonwealth Bank's wealth management challenge.